The present invention relates to a roll-forming machine and more particularly, to an improved structure of roll-forming machine, which is practical for the formation of a C-shaped component or a Z-shaped selectively. And, which facilitates the performance of maintenance and repair works.
Many roll-forming machines are known and used to transform a planar sheet of metal into a component having either a C-shaped or Z-shaped cross-sectional area. U.S. Pat. No. 6,216,514 B1 is a typical one of these designs. This design, as shown in FIG. 1, is still not satisfactory in function because of the following drawbacks:    1. When forming rolls 91, 92 or transferring rolls 931, 932, 941, 942 start to wear or other related component parts are damaged, locating members 951, 952, gears 981, 982, axle sleeve means 971, 972, 973, 974 and shaft members 981, 982 must be detached, so that the repair or replacement work can be started. After the repair or replacement work, the detached component parts must be installed again, that is, much labor and time are wasted during a repair or replacement work.    2. The left-side and right-side telescoping arbor assemblies that support the forming rolls 91, 92 are adjustable so that the lateral distance between the forming rolls 91, 92 may be adjusted. However, the forming rolls 91, 92 are not adjustable vertically to fit sheet materials of different thickness to facilitate the formation of C-shaped components/Z-shaped components of different specifications.
The present invention has been accomplished under the circumstances in view. It is therefore the main object of the present invention to provide a roll-forming machine, which eliminates the aforesaid drawbacks.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a sufficient partition space is provided between the forming roll sets at the left side of the machine base and the forming roll sets at the right side of the machine base for easy performance of maintenance and repair works. When the impression wheels or sheet-transfer wheels of the forming roll sets of the roll-forming machine are worn with a long use or damaged, the workers can easily unfasten the respective fastening members from the impression wheels or sheet-transfer wheels and the respective shafts and remove the impression wheels or sheet-transfer wheels from the respective shafts for repair or replacement.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the wheel shafts of the shape-forming wheels of the 1st and 4th pairs of forming roll sets are respectively mounted with a respective locating block through which the respective wheel shafts can be rotated through 180° between two positions and locked by a respective locating rod, setting the roll-forming machine for processing C-shaped component or Z-shaped component.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, the pitch between the first left-side carrier plate and the first right-side carrier plate and the pitch between the second left-side carrier plate and the second right-side carrier plats that carry the forming roll sets are adjustable for processing different sizes of C-shaped components or Z-shaped components.